WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts in Global Crackdown

As of August 6th, 2025, WhatsApp has taken down a staggering 6.8 million accounts that were linked to criminal scam centers operating globally. This announcement comes from Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, as part of their ongoing efforts to combat the surge of sophisticated online scams.

The account deletions occurred over the first six months of 2025, with Meta stating that these scam centers often target people across multiple platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and even emerging technologies like ChatGPT. To further strengthen their defenses, Meta has also introduced new safety features on WhatsApp, such as a safety overview that alerts users when someone not in their contacts adds them to a group, as well as ongoing test alerts to encourage caution before responding to suspicious messages.

The rise of digital scams has become a growing concern, with too-good-to-be-true offers and unsolicited messages attempting to steal consumers' personal information or money. Meta has warned that these scam campaigns often originate from organized crime operations, sometimes involving forced labor, and can quickly spread across various online channels in an effort to evade detection.

In one recent example, Meta disrupted a scam campaign that was using its own apps, as well as TikTok, Telegram, and AI-generated messages from ChatGPT, to lure users into pyramid schemes and cryptocurrency investments. This particular scam was traced back to a criminal scam center in Cambodia, which Meta was able to disrupt in partnership with OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT.